Rush the Iceberg

You may have already read this post…A few months ago I updated WordPress and did not have a back up of my blog; sadness. Through the magic of Google Reader, I was able to rescue this and other favorite posts! Yay!

No, nothing about pedagogy or the philosophical idealism found in the education halls on Twitter.

I am wondering what are the things that get you through your day at school? The important teacher things?

Here is my list:

1.  Beano or Gas-X: chicken tikka masala left overs will not be kind twenty minutes after eating.

2.  Caffeine: any form will do.  Typically, I double fist coffee and Pepsi Max.

3.  Breath-mints or gum: I want my students to ask me questions even after having the two previous items.

4.  Silverware: have you tried eating left-over-microwaved-barbecued-steak with a spork and  plastic knife?

5.  Dental floss: good dental hygiene is important.

6.  Chocolate: I dig Toblerone and can not get enough of the pretzel M&M’s (basically they are salt dipped in chocolate).

7.  Tums: heartburn hurts and middle school students do not care because they have throats of steel.

8.  Spray air freshener: Middle school students fart.  I do not.  I use Gas-X.

9.  A mirror: You never know what might be on your face with all the ninjas and smurfs running around class.

10.  Hiding place for all the above. Right now I have a huge cabinet; I used a file cabinet in the past.

What items would be on your list? What have I forgotten?

You may have already read this post…A few months ago I updated WordPress and did not have a back up of my blog; sadness. Through the magic of Google Reader, I was able to rescue this and other favorite posts! Yay!

Special thanks goes to Rob Greco for the conversation that inspired this post!

There are teachers who remind me of Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and most of those on the “Top 40″: they have little integrity and perform what others have written.  They have producers who add a little auto-tune…trendy…all the popular kids like them…

Are you one of these?

There are teachers who remind me of The Beatles or U2: they are relevant with the mainstream yet artistically challenging themselves to create new music that does not rely on the past or formulae…

Are you one of these?

There are teachers who remind me of Rush or Pink Floyd: they are just off the mainstream, yet within earshot and hugely respected by most musicians…sometimes these bands have mainstream success…

Are you one of these?

There are teachers who remind me of Porcupine Tree: they can be “popy” like ABBA and “heavy” like Slayer, all in the same song…catchy melodies that stick in your head with fast, pounding beats that energize…

Are you one of these?

There are teachers that remind me of Jacob Moon, Patti Griffin, or Elliot Smith: they appear to be to working alone and under the radar of most people; yet, have hugely devoted fans and great music…

Are you one of these?

There are teachers who remind me of Miles Davis, Weather Report, and Bill Bruford: jazz musicians who have a solid foundation of their craft and who truly explore the limits of their music, taking their fans to new discoveries that can not be measured….

Are you one of these?

There are teachers who remind me of Robert Fripp, Sonic Youth, or  Sigur Rós: they create cinematic soundscapes and songs that frequently have no traditional structure, that challenge the listener to create their own meaning and beauty…

Are you one of these?

If I am completely honest with myself, I am all of the above at various times of the year.

I wish I was somewhere between Rush and Porcupine Tree with the freedom to channel Miles Davis…

You may have already read this post…A few months ago I updated WordPress and did not have a back up of my blog; sadness. Through the magic of Google Reader, I was able to rescue this and other favorite posts! Yay!

A week or two ago Jerrid Kruse posted on his twitter that his “preferred ratio between peanut butter & jelly shifts towards increased jelly as I get older.”

I shot back the following questions: “What about your butter to syrup ratio on your waffles?  Milk to cereal ratio? What’s your ranch to fry ratio?”

The exchange got me thinking about how my pedagogy, tone, and presence in the classroom has shifted in my twelve years of teaching.  When I first started teaching, I used to dunk, err, submerge my french fries in ranch dressing.

Credit: Jackson Fox

After twelve years of teaching, I can say that I use less ranch on my french fries because I rely less on pre-made “things” designed to cover up the natural goodness of the potato.  When I do dip my fries, honey mustard dressing, barbeque sauce, or French Dip Au Jus are my go to choices.

In addition, I am not relying only on the standard Russet potato to make my fries; rather, I frequently switch between Yukon Gold, Dutch Baby Bonnets, and even Sweet Potatoes throughout the year.

A few months ago I updated WordPress and did not have a back up of my blog; sadness. Through the magic of Google Reader, I was able to rescue this and other favorite posts! Yay!

(I just came across THIS article from the Wall Street Journal that is on the same topic. 12/12/11)

The negative aspects of mandatory, punitive state testing are obvious.  Teachers on blogs and twitter incessantly lament the stupidity and ineffectiveness of state testing.

Bill Shakespeare, The Beatles, and Steve Jobs all worked tirelessly on their creative craft, releasing ideas that have transformed society for the better. They did not believe in a world of hyperbole; they lived in a world of verbs.

We could whine and cry all day and not change the reality that mandatory testing will be in our education system for a long time into the future. The system is broken and absolutely needs to be fixed. Everyone knows that.

But offering hyperbolic platitudes on Twitter and blogs about how things should be is like preaching sermons on bumper stickers. Catchy and, perhaps, memorable. But not transformative.

The misplaced idealism is depressing.

Creativity, on the other hand, is transformative.

Did Bill Shakespeare whine and complain about the restrictions of the sonnet.  Did he Twitter “Noooo, I can’t write a poem in only 14 lines, and have a rhyme scheme, in iambic pentameter, with an octave that poses a problem and a sextet that solves the problem…”

Did the Beatles whine and complain about writing songs that had to be under three minutes?  Did they complain about Ringo?  (Sorry, low blow…Ringo rocks!  Ringo is the luckiest musician in the world!)

Did Steve Jobs whine and complain about CD’s getting scratched and the lack of a stable, elegant computer?

I seriously doubt it.

So now what?

Innovate!

Figure it out!

Teach!

Start writing for your students!

We can still utilize research based best practices and excellent pedagogy to equip our students for success on state tests and help our students to begin learning about themselves.

Constraint creates creativity.

Credit: Stephen Davis

A few months ago I updated WordPress and did not have a back up of my blog; sadness. Through the magic of Google Reader, I was able to rescue this and other favorite posts! Yay!

Watching the World Series last night got me thinking, but not in a good way, about how education is similar to baseball: teachers are pitchers and students are hitters.

Most of the time, students do not know what pitch their teacher is going to throw.

Most of the time, teachers hope to throw great pitches to strike students out.

How many times do teachers throw curve-balls in class? How often do you see students swinging and missing, spinning around like a ballerina, looking silly and out of place.

Students walk back to the dugout, head looking down at the only brightness and life in their lives, while the teacher thinks about what a great, standards based pitch he just threw. The student had no clue the teacher would throw a split-fingered fastball on a 2-1 count.

There are teachers who throw a lot of junk like Phil Niekro, the famous knuckle ball pitcher. These teachers throw different assignments at their students on a daily basis. Assignments come in at different speeds and different angles, sometimes dropping right in front of the plate, confusing them.

There are teachers who throw a lot of strikes and fastballs like Nolan Ryan, the all time strike-out leader. They are feared because they throw fastballs for strikes as students swing and miss – striking out daily. Every once in a while, a student gets lucky and makes contact with the lesson. Sometimes the teacher even throws a curve ball just to keep the students paying attention.

A pitcher needs someone to throw to…

There are students who only care about their grades, just like the players who only care about their statistics. These students look at their stats daily, stressing out if they only got three hits out of their five times at bat.

Students do not care if the pitches are good; they just want to hit the ball.

Teachers do not care if the hitters are good; they just want the ball to be hit.

Students are focused on the guy selling Cracker-Jacks on the second level of the stadium.

Teachers are focused on the suits telling them to do what the suits above are telling them to do.

Both the pitchers and the hitters are not focused on what really matters – learning: an unmeasurable, subjective concept like one’s competitive drive.

Credit: Stephen Davis

A few months ago I updated WordPress and did not have a back up; sadness. Through the magic of Google Reader, I was able to rescue this and other favorite posts! Yay!

Jerrid Kruse had an interesting post on his science teaching blog about The Power of Food Coloring where he asks what his readers would do with a video modeling various natural events. Below is an edited/extended version of my comment.

I teach English and can barely recognize science when it hits me on the head or prevents my students from rising with applause and adoration after a lesson on parallelism in writing.

I firmly believe there is much to learn about the art and craft of teaching by watching/reading teachers from across content areas and grade levels.

The metaphor may not be perfect, but the writing process jumped into my mind when I watched the video.

The scientist provides the initial drop of food coloring into tank. A writer starts with an initial idea and writes.

Next, the food coloring slowly morphs into different shapes/density; this happens while a writer is drafting.

Once the food coloring got to the middle of the tank, it appeared to be diluted and almost reluctant to go forward; writers often get stuck midway through a piece, experiencing writer’s block.

The big “blob” of food coloring is dropped in around the one minute mark. Often, writer’s block is broken when something external, frequently different from what was happening previously.

Things really get going in the tank and on the page now!

The big “blob” then over takes the initial food coloring put into the tank; the idea a writer gets while breaking out of writer’s block often over takes the initial idea.

When all is finished, you have a piece that is deep (under the surface thinking exhibited) that initially started above/on the surface.

Let me and Jerrid know what you see in the video.